Search

Just the facts tonight, very long day, started work at 7am, run leader duties after work so not home until after 830pm, just want to kick back and relax.

Ran a very quick 6km before leading my group – 28:42, average pace 4:47, a new (unofficial of course) 5Km PB along the way which goes to show that I can often train now at paces I used to race at. *edit* bugger, in my haste and tiredness I messed up there, not quite an unofficial PB but close and done very comfortably.

Rupert and I were leading the 8Km medium pace group today, previously I had only lead the slow groups so it was a nice change. The group was pretty tight and I lead a pack of 5 in to finish in 44:40. They were all happy to get in at quicker than 6 minute per Km pace and I sneakily upped the pace with about 1.5Km to go just to push them a bit. Everyone was pretty cheerful at the end and said they all enjoyed themselves. One participant even assumed that I was a personal trainer and this was what I did for a living :oops:

Total for today – 14Km

Monthly wrap up
February Km – 246.5 (’06 198)

Year to Date – 519

Injuries – None, still free of Plantar Fasciitis

Excuses – None really, had a slow one last week which kept me from having a 300Km week but not fussed

With warm up and cool down 8Km, pretty happy with the session tonight. Perhaps it should have been a little quicker owing to the pseudoepherdrine in my system courtesy of the Codral’s I am on at the moment, still battling this head cold, but much better than I was yesterday.

Back to Run for the Kids run leader duties at the London Hotel tomorrow night.

Back to work tomorrow, ughhhh, the time, as usual, has passed too quickly and, as usual, I only got about a quarter of the things done that needed doing :roll:

Oh for more hours in the day, I still haven’t had a chance to catch up on everyone else’s blogs yet!

Running
Today, a very enjoyable 11Km in 57:19, average pace 5:13. Looks like the small break has really freshened me up.

Thanks also to everyone for the kind comments about last Wednesday nights race, it wasn’t a bad return to racing.

But the rest of last week was pretty quiet, in fact after having a rest day on Thursday I only ran 8Km while I was up north. On Friday I took my sister for a 4Km run/walk, that is about 3Km running and 1Km walking. While she was walking I did some hill repeats and ran back to her so my distance was probably a bit further, but I wasn’t counting.

On Saturday morning I went for a horrible 5Km slog around my brothers neighborhood, although it was only 6:50am it was hot and humid and it was also a very hilly course.

Sunday, I am afraid, I bailed on the long run. Way too much Sav Blanc and then polishing off the remainder of a bottle of Absinthe with my brother meant that I had a bit of a lie in on Sunday morning meaning I missed the window for a run. OK, I actually passed out fully clothed and with contact lenses still in and remained that way until about 8 the next morning :roll: All of the folks out there either on my MSN list or in my mobile phone directory should thank their lucky stars I did flake out because I was definitely in a mood to talk crap after everyone else had gone to bed.

The Glittering Gold Coast
I had a fantastic long weekend up north with my brother and sister. Aunty Em finally got to meet little Katrina, now I may be a touch biased here but she really is a little Angel. Though I was a bit nervous being left alone with her for 45 minutes on Saturday morning when my brother dropped his fiance off for a massage appointment. I felt duty bound to push her musical tastes in the right direction (ie: away from my bother’s penchant for garage and old skool rap) and popped JTV on. She started bawling halfway though Muse, though I think it was more to do with the need for a feed than the top notch musical selection she was being subjected to.

Thankfully I had been left with a bottle and managed to get her to take it, though while I was burping her she also decided to expel most of her previous feed out the other end, Euowwwwww. Aunty duties do not, I am afraid extend to changing poo filled nappies and my options where to pay my sister to change it when she turned up (I am not joking!) or wait for her Daddy, fortunately he got home 5 minutes later and I handed her over and left the room!

As I mentioned earlier I did not get up to much running. Though I have convinced my brother to enter the 10Km at the Gold Coast Marathon with the promise that I would run it with him. He is currently getting around a 9Km hilly loop with a run/walk with more running than walking each time. He reckons his first effort took him 1 hour 45 minutes but has now got it down to about 1:20. Not bad considering he is 96Kg (but losing all the time) and has broken both his ankles at one point over the last 8 years, one still has the screw in it. One look at his shoes though and I have told him to get himself to Athletes Foot for an assessment and let me know what he needs so I can get him some better shoes on the cheap next time I order from the US. He is running in an awful pair of cheap runners with almost no support, I can’t in all good grace let him go on like that!

I have also been informed by my brother than I have “puny Ally McBeal arms” and I look skinner every time he sees me. My sister also wanted to know how many sit-ups I do every day to keep my stomach flat, Ummmm, none, I just run and try to keep up the Pilates (been a bit slack on that front lately)

I spent most of the 4 days between Thursday and Sunday experiencing how that other half lives. That is, I mostly ate terribly, drank waaaaaay too much and did very little exercise and too be honest it was bloody awful and I can’t wait to get back into the routine again this week. Having said that my brother did make a fabulous Toblerone and Kahlua mouse for dessert on Saturday night (it would have been rude not to eat it really), which was proceeded by a very healthy BBQ with Barramundi and Flat Head and some great salads. It really does make a difference when a trained Chef does the cooking, everything just tastes about 100 times better.

Enough rambling now, I seem to be coming down with a summer cold so I am off to the chemist for some cold and flu tablets, always seems to happen when I fly.

Sorry, almost forgot to explain today’s post title. I went for a run this afternoon as soon as I got home, at about midday. What is it with some guys, and by that I don’t mean any readers here, I am sure none of you fine upstanding lads fall into the category of “some guys”. OK, so what is it with some guys who seem to think it is acceptable to either gawk, stare, honk or yell “whoa yeah” at a girl running along the footpath? Do they seriously expect that it is going to get them anywhere? And I guarantee you that should they get a closer look they would be sticking their stupid heads back in the car/truck/van pretty sharpish and getting the hell outta there.

A mate (Mark) was doing the 8Km and hung back slightly to take me through the last 800 metres when it was really starting to hurt. Much appreciated and I even managed to kick at the end and overtake a pretty fit looking guy just before the finish line.

Glad to get the first post pace injury out of the way and am more than happy with my time, I would have been happy with 18 minutes flat. Hopefully it is a portent of better things to come.

Totally shithouse run this afternoon, it was so damn hot I sweat like a pig and the whole damn thing was a disgusting slog. I just took it easy and chucked in some strides as per Ewen’s advice. I really should have got out there this morning.

:roll: let’s hope Em’s law plays out and a great run follows a shit one and I can pull of a great 4Km tomorrow afternoon.

I am in two minds about how much running I should do up north, I know the humidity is going to kill me. I may just have to concede a low mileage week and just keep it to under 10Kms per run while I am up there. In typical fashion I am still having trouble unwinding and am a bit strung out still. I may just kick back and really let the batteries recharge between Thursday and Sunday, drink a bit, eat some good food and take it easy.

Daily Adventures
Yes, I got the hair cut, but I can’t post a picture yet. Stupid hairdresser totally disregarded my continued pleas of “don’t give me boofy hair, I hate big hair, I like it straight and sleek, seriously, DO NOT GIVE ME BOOFY HAIR, put down the big round brush and pick up the straightener NOW” Aghhhhhh, she gave me boofy hair and filled it full of crappy “product”, I looked like my mother (not that there is anything wrong with my dear old mum, I just don’t want her hair). This all means that the hair has to be rewashed and straightened before I will let a camera near it, it has been washed now but I’ll finish it in the morning.

A trip to Ikea today as resulted in a nice new TV stand to replace the crappy old one I have had forever.

There is a door that flips up to cover the stuff inside as well, doubt that will get used much though.

It became apparent this afternoon as I tried to maneuver the flat pack from a shoulder height shelf onto the trolley that my upper body strength has well and truly deserted me. It only weighed 27 Kg but I could barely lift it. I managed it by catching it on my knee and getting into the trolley from there.

The car park was another adventure as I stood there trying to figure out how to get it from the trolley into the back of my car, too proud to ask for help, of course! I ended up getting it onto a bollard and swinging it into the back of the car, a little bit of leverage goes a long way.

Perhaps this is something that I should have put on my 100 things about me post, but I have an uncanny knack for putting together flat pack furniture, you just have to be patient and resist the urge to “make things fit” :lol:

Ok, that’ll be it from me until Monday next week. If I can I’ll try to squeeze in a quick race report tomorrow evening, otherwise I’ll catch you all next week :-)

With a 4Km race on Wednesday evening it was a much shorter run this afternoon. Normally I would have had an 11km recovery run but I kept it to 8Km, but it was a fartlek session, pretty much just chucking in some strides when it felt right.

A bit strange racing on a Wednesday evening and as it is such a short race it does not really seem to warrant much by way of a taper. Hence just cutting today’s run short and not doing an interval session tomorrow, rather I’ll probably just do a slow 5Km tomorrow, sound alright?

Vicky, it is a shame that Ocean gets in the way, you’d be the perfect long run companion, and maybe I could compromise and get out on the odd Saturday ;-)

Lazy Days
A very lazy day today, how nice to just flop out and have a nap if you feel like it. Today was just about getting the house in order, there is a hard rubbish collection next week so all the junk is going out on the nature strip. I put it out early, essentially hoping there will be some scavengers which means I can put more stuff out.

Another luxury is having the time to cook a decent dinner. I am just typing this up while waiting for my appetite to come back, then I am cooking up some prawn fajitas, Mmmmmmm, way tasty and pretty much no fat (fortunately I hate sour cream).

Now, the other night I had to yell at the TV, embarrassed to admit that while watching the nightly news this is a pretty common occurrence, usually it is a cry of “That’s not fucking news, this isn’t the E channel!”. The recent outburst was because Brittany Spears had shaved her head. Whoop De Fucking Do, seriously, she could decapitate herself for all I care, actually now there’s an idea.

As if that was not bad enough, on the news today they announce that the Salon is selling the Hair, a half consumed “energy drink” and a cigarette lighter for some outrageous sum, over a million bucks!

Come on, what the hell would you do with it, the mind boggles :shock:

On topic, I am off for a hair cut tomorrow, a little less drastic that Brit Brit though. I will be going short but not that short, I have had my hair extremely short in the past, think Annie Lennox in the early days, problem is I ended up getting the wrong kind of attention :roll: so I let it grow again. Most people tell me they like my hair long, but most people don’t have to look after it, I just don’t have the time to invest in blow drying and straightening everyday, as a result I end up with a permanent pony tail. Have any of you seen me with my hair down? No, that’s right, too much trouble.

Girls Up 4 Fit

Are you up for it? girlsup4fit aims to provide quality fitness training to women of all ages and abilities within central Melbourne. Click on the logo to find out more

Casey Cardinia Athletics

Casey Cardinia Athletics has been established to foster the sport of Athletics in the Casey and Cardinia regions and to provide athletes aged 14 and over with the opportunity to participate in the sport with a local club. CCA is affiliated with Athletics Victoria and participates in the Athletics Victoria South East Region Shield competition in the summer and the XCR cross country and road racing series in the winter